Imperial Crown.

Chapter 200 Better than a hoe

The completed factory is located right beside the Liujing River.

Both factories are huge, no smaller than the Colosseum. From a distance, they look like two giant beasts drinking river water.

From the appearance, the two are very similar, both have gray-white walls more than three meters high, guarded by soldiers; except for the sluice leading to the Liujing River, the gate is divided into two doors, large enough for five carriages to run side by side.

If you walk far enough and look beyond the high wall, you can see the difference between the two.

The one on the east side, in addition to the factory building, has five blast furnaces inside the wall, spewing black smoke, as well as relatively short but larger charcoal kilns used for smoldering coke.

In comparison, the one on the west side is a bit unremarkable. Although there are some buildings emitting smoke, they are obviously not as much as those on the east side.

Needless to say, the one on the east is a forging and casting factory; as for the one on the west, no one can tell what is going on inside, and even the workers who have entered cannot get out for a while.

The factory has started operating, but it cannot be said to be running at full speed. After all, even though there are some craftsmen among the transferred residents and refugees, and there are some skilled workers in Xuefeng Territory and Xiongying Territory, the overall number is still not enough.

In comparison, the situation at the blacksmith factory was better, employing more than 300 blacksmiths; the other factory only employed less than 200 people, most of whom were apprentices.

The factory was newly built, so of course Raven had to come and take a look.

There is no so-called ribbon-cutting ceremony - it’s your own business, there’s no need to trouble yourself.

After Raven arrived in Snow Maple Town, he settled the gray dwarves and a group of blacksmiths, and then went to the workshop in the west, staying there for seven or eight days on and off.

As the political official of Xuefeng Town, Kuman followed Raven and worked there for several days at the beginning, but he really couldn't understand what Raven was trying to do. Seeing that he couldn't help, Raven let him do what he was supposed to do.

That day, Raven took time off from the factory and finished his lunch. Kuman came to see him in a hurry: "Baron, I have something to tell you."

"Although the things you made are valuable, they are definitely not worth building a factory on, let alone wasting so much time on!"

"Don't comment on things you don't understand easily. Forget it this time, but it won't happen again." Raven stretched and said, "Anything else?"

Kuman just wanted to establish his loyalty and didn't want to upset Raven, so he changed the subject and said, "Yes, first of all, the priest of the local church wants to invite you over..."

"Next one." Raven dug his ear.

Snow Maple Territory and Eagle Territory are both under the jurisdiction of Raven. As the lord, Raven can give the tithe to either the Snow Maple Town Church or the Eagle Town Church.

Now that Raven has given the tithe to Lacus, it naturally harms the interests of the local priests, so they want to say good things to Raven through Kuman.

Obviously, this method doesn't work.

Kuman continued, "The next thing is that the local school would like to invite you to give a speech and set a good example for the children."

"That's no problem. Let's arrange it for the morning of the day after tomorrow." Raven agreed.

With the construction of the new castle, a school for the subjects is also being built as an ancillary building, but the teaching staff has not yet been found.

After all, a school is not an orphanage or a charity, and Raven also wants to see for himself how schools operate in this era.

He also talked about a few trivial matters, including but not limited to a local businessman who wanted to invite Raven to dinner, a commoner who had returned from school wanting to work for Raven, and a local Women's Federation who wanted to ask Raven to invest in them.

After pushing away all the things that could be postponed, Raven stood up and said, "Now that we're done, let's go together. I also have some important things to do."

"Where are you going?"

"factory."

"Still going to the factory?"

"Forge!"

After thinking about it, Kuman decided to follow Raven. He had to find out what the adults liked.

The forging factory was constantly filled with smoke and dust. In less than ten days, the originally grayish-white walls near the blast furnace had been smoked out with a layer of black.

The smell of coal smoke made Kuman cover his nose with a handkerchief. He really couldn't understand what was so interesting about a factory.

No matter how big it is, it is still a factory!
As he walked into the forging room, a wave of heat hit him in the face, making Kuman feel as if his eyebrows were burnt and his breathing became a little stuffy.

This is still in late winter and early spring. How hot would it be if it were summer?
The craftsmen were wearing work clothes and masks, sweat dripping down their skin, as they hammered on various formed and unformed iron ingots.

In addition to the blast furnace, there are also small furnaces for heating blanks in the factory. Many blacksmiths are gathered around them, some are adding coke, some are sprinkling carbon powder into the furnace, and some are blowing the bellows with their upper bodies naked.

When they saw Raven coming, the blacksmiths saluted respectfully in uneven movements. Some of them took a long time to react until Raven had walked away, and then continued with the work at hand.

This is also the rule in the factory, and Raven emphasized it when he came last time.

Iron and fire are always fraught with danger. It is not worth injuring craftsmen and delaying progress for the sake of false courtesy.

"Baron, you are here!" Sohei wiped the dust off his face and rushed to Raven to salute: "This is simply a paradise for craftsmen. There are all kinds of equipment. You are so thoughtful!"

"As long as it works." Raven smiled. "How's the 'Earth Core Furnace'?"

Suohei said excitedly: "The structure you had built earlier is fine. Boweier and I have modified it a little bit and are heating it up. It will be ready for use in a dozen days at most!"

"Hey, I knew that there must be something wrong since you didn't bother me for ten minutes. Why didn't you tell me that the Baron was coming?" Bowell ran over from a distance with his short legs.

Suo gave him a black and white look: "You said you value etiquette the most, what does that mean?"

"The Baron is here, I won't argue with you." Bowell acted magnanimously: "Since the Baron is here, would you like to see the jewelry I designed?"

Raven promised Sohei to invest in a jewelry store for Bowell, and he kept his word. Now the jewelry store is under construction, and Bowell is preparing stocks for the store. A workshop in the factory has also been specially allocated for his use.

With this favor in mind, although reluctantly, Bowell still worked as Sohei's assistant in the large workshop, and focused his main energy on jewelry processing.

"Let's talk about the jewelry later. I came here today mainly to ask about the progress." Raven said, "How is the weapon forging going?" Hearing this question, Suo's face fell a little: "This... I'm not optimistic. The skills of these newly recruited blacksmiths are too poor. They can't make usable weapons at all. It will take at least a few months to train them."

"Not really?" Raven was stunned for a moment and rubbed his chin: "Do you have any samples they made before? Let me take a look."

"Yes, sir." Suohei turned around and said, "Hey, go to the warehouse and get what I prepared earlier!"

Soon someone came over carrying two boxes of weapons. Sohei led Raven and the others to the side of the table, and picked up the weapons one by one and laid them out.

They are the common spear, sword, scimitar, and shield, arranged in groups of two.

It's not obvious when they are taken individually, but when they are compared two by two, even Kuman can see something: "These on the left are made by you, and the ones on the right are made by the new blacksmith?"

Suo Hei said: "You see, Lord Baron, even an amateur knows that these things they made cannot be used!"

Just tell me, why are you taking me with you?
Kuman's face turned a little dark, but it must be admitted that the two did look different.

The weapons made by the gray dwarves look as smooth as a mirror. If you observe them from a certain angle, you can see beautiful patterns on them, and the edges are polished neatly and smoothly.

However, the weapons forged by ordinary blacksmiths appear a bit rough, with uneven surfaces and irregular shapes. In some places, you can even see bends caused by inadequate quenching.

But immediately, Kuman felt something was wrong. He walked forward and picked up a long sword: "Wait, this is the defective product you mentioned?"

Bo Weier was a little dissatisfied: "Of course, didn't you see that too?"

Without caring about Bowell's attitude, Kuman asked, "Are these defective products... all recycled?"

"We'll put the ore back into the furnace after it's refined." Suo Hei said, "We've had them try production for five days in total. There are more than 600 pieces of various types piled up in the warehouse."

"My Lord Baron, I finally understand why you had to come here. You're just throwing gold coins into molten iron!" Kuman sighed, looking at the confused faces of Sohei and Bowell, and sighed: "I have seen the casting technology and vision of the gray dwarves, but you, you..."

As he spoke, he looked at Raven, and after getting Raven's consent, he held the sword in front of the two dwarves and said, "Yes, a long sword of this quality will easily cut a hole when it hits someone, and it will do nothing to armor, but it is still a sword after all!"

"It's better than chopping people with a hoe!"

"Do you know how much this sword costs on the market?"

Sohei and Boweier looked at each other and shook their heads at the same time.

Kuman said: "One point thirty-seven gold coins!"

"How much?!" Sohei was shocked. "Just these two pounds of scrap iron are worth so much!?"

He knew that weapons on the market were very expensive, but he didn't expect it to be so outrageously expensive. You know, normally he would only spend six to eight gold coins to forge a steel sword!

"The price of a spear is not as high as that of a sword, but the price of a shield and a scimitar is not low." Kuman sighed, "Fortunately, the Baron came early. If it were later, they would have to be melted down and remade, and eight or nine hundred gold coins would have been lost in vain!"

Sohei and Bowell were both frightened. With so much money, even if they exchanged it for Angel's Tears, they could drink as much as they wanted for a month!
Suo Hei said with red eyes - although his eyes were originally red - "Baron, don't worry, from today on, we will do our best to forge this weapon!"

It is said that it is not easy to learn well, but it is easy to learn badly.

It is impossible to improve the craftsmanship of the gray dwarves in a short period of time; but if we let them make such inferior products, wouldn’t that be a piece of cake?
Raven waved his hand and smiled, "No need to do that. Just let the new blacksmiths make these weapons. There are no orders yet. The products are split 30% to 70%, 30% long swords and 70% long spears. They are the best-selling items."

"As for you, you better make fine products for me honestly - these are for my own army to use, so don't be careless!"

Suo Hei immediately agreed, and then shouted: "Hey, you idiots, come here, there are skills to making garbage, let me teach you!"

Coming out of the factory, Kuman said, "Baron, there is a question I don't understand."

Raven asked, "You mean to ask, since equipment is so valuable now, why not let the gray dwarves also forge inferior weapons and make some money?"

Kuman didn't expect Raven to see through his thoughts. He was stunned for a moment and continued, "Yes, Baron, the market will eventually become saturated. It's better to make a fortune first, and then you can slow down and slowly equip your army."

"If I were a pure businessman, I would definitely do as you said." Raven said calmly, "But I am a lord."

"Merchants make money to make more money; lords make money to develop their territories."

At this point, Raven paused and glanced at Kuman: "One day in the future, maybe you will become a lord, but there is one thing you must remember."

“Making money is a means, not an end.”

"Don't let the development of your territory stagnate for the sake of temporary profits. Time can't be bought back no matter how much money you spend!"

Hearing these words, Kuman stood there and swallowed.

Baron Raven's words went straight to the heart of the matter, and while he was filled with admiration, his heartbeat also began to quicken.

Does this mean that I, too, could become a knight?
Looking at his appearance, Raven smiled slightly and quickened his pace.

Being a leader and painting a rosy picture for others feels pretty good!

For the next period of time, the forging factory, which had been freed from restrictions, became bustling with activity. Five blast furnaces spewed out black smoke day and night. The blacksmiths displayed great enthusiasm and worked overtime to produce weapons. Ore was transported in and slag was transported out through the two gates every day.

With the full efforts of more than 300 blacksmiths and apprentices, the factory was able to produce about 150 low-quality weapons every day. As time went on, the output continued to increase, and finally stabilized at around 200 pieces per day.

Winter has gone and spring has come, and it is now early April.

Except for a few shady places where the sun rarely sees the sun, the snow has melted away. Under the nourishment of the spring rain, tender grass and tree buds have sprouted. The migratory birds flying south have also returned here, chirping on the eaves and roofs, adding a lot of vitality to the spring.

On April 2, a huge convoy arrived at the Eagle Territory.

The youngest son of the Slater family, now the Viscount, Hyde Ota Slater took off his helmet, and heaved a sigh of relief but also showed dissatisfaction:
"Raven, you better really give me the surprise you said!"

……

(End of this chapter)